The desire for self-improvement is the elemental feeling of inadequacy that has plagued humanity since antiquity. This includes everything from wanting to excel in sports to wanting to get rich.

Every human being has this desire in one form or another, no matter how fulfilled they may claim to be.

From a copywriter's point of view this leaves the door open to get inside their prospect's mind and heart and motivate them to buy their product.

If your prospects see your product as an opportunity to improve themselves, either consciously or unconsciously, you can stimulate this emotion to your benefit.

This is an important point: In copywriting for Internet marketing, our job is not to try to awaken a new emotion in our prospect. That would be too much work and probably wouldn't be very effective.

What we need to do is find out what is actually motivating these people powerfully. Then we show them how to fulfill their drive by using our product or service.

If the desire for self-improvement is already the emotion people feel in association with your product, then it can be developed and intensified to the point where people will move mountains to buy your product.

I've used a powerful sales letter to illustrate this principle
(using self improvement).
There is a squeeze page you need to go through before you get to the sales page so go ahead and put in your name and email address. If you don't want to receive emails from them, simply ignore the request to confirm your subscription and they won't send you any emails.

When you get to the sales letter you'll notice that right in the headline the copywriter is using the word "automatic" and making it sound real easy. Everyone may want self-improvement, but no one wants to put in any effort.

People want results quickly so they are promising to "transform your entire life" within 56 days.

Since the desire for self-improvement is based on a feeling of inadequacy they are guaranteeing results right at the beginning of the sales letter. The prospect is promised nothing less than "dramatic improvement" or "you don't pay a penny".

When you are playing up the desire for self-improvement you need to promise substantial results quickly and easily in order to get your prospect's attention. Once you have their attention you can start to build up the emotions driving that desire.

A good sales letter will anticipate the objections people are likely to raise before they get strong enough to erode credibility. In the example, right after they make the big promises in the headline, they mention that they will be talking about a "revolutionary new brainwave treatment".

This is because most people are already resigned to their inadequacies and don't really believe they can improve. The copywriter has introduced the concept of a "revolutionary" solution that the reader can expect they have not heard of before.

Next they have a list of all the imperfections that people have. Almost everyone has some or many of the "symptoms" that this program promises to improve.

Now that the prospect has been hooked nice and securely the salesletter gets the reader to imagine what life would be like if they didn't have the imperfections that have been bothering them.

The rest of the letter is devoted to proving that results really are possible and getting people excited about the possibility of success.

This sales letter is brilliantly written by a professional copywriter. It would be well worth your while to read it several times and to write out, in long-hand, the key areas that bridge the details of the product itself.